The Cyborg as an Emancipatory Figure: The Female Cyborg in Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2049, and Ex Machina

Abstract

With the recent success of shows such as Westworld (2016), the figure of the female cyborg is slowly seeping back into our film screens and our unconscious. This image of a human/machine hybrid is not something new for audiences. However, the recent depiction of the female/machine hybrid may be different. Since its establishment as a bonafide genre in film, science fiction films have more or less given female characters marginal roles, with the cyborg being one of the figures these females commonly occupy. In its basic definition, the cyborg is a figure whose physical abilities surpass those of humans due to advanced technological and mechanical elements built within it. This research project aims to outline whether or not there has been a shift in the representation of female cyborgs – one that makes use of Haraway’s cyborg metaphor and Laboria Cuboniks’ Xenofeminist manifesto– in recent science fiction films. Through a close reading of Blade Runner (1982), Blade Runner 2049 (2017), and Ex Machina (2015), I aim to show whether or not this shift embodies the principles of cyber-feminist discourse. Moreover, the study also discusses the significance of the figure of the cyborg as a means of emancipation for feminists, in relation to the films, and reflects on what this shift could mean for the future of film and cyber-feminist discourse in general. I first begin by outlining the genealogy of the cyborg in Chapter 2 by tracing its appearance in Greek mythology. I note the ways in which man-made animate beings have accompanied us since early art and literature, as well as go through the etymology of the word “cyborg” and how its relates to its depiction. I then give a thorough definition of the cyborg metaphor in Haraway’s, and others’, discourse. I narrow my definition to the female cyborg specifically and trace its depiction in early to contemporary cinematic works. I end the chapter by going through Laura Mulvey’s Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975) and determining its relevancy in analyzing science fiction film. In Chapter 3, I analyze both Ridley Scott’s 1982 Blade Runner and Denis Villeneuve’s 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049, with the purpose of discerning how both depicted the female cyborg and if that depiction has evolved or reflected the idea of the cyborg metaphor and its emancipatory power. In Chapter 4 I shift my analysis to Alex Garland’s 2014 Ex Machina to determine if and how the film lives up to the praise it received as a feminist science fiction film that favors the female. My objective through these three chapters is to deduce whether recent science fiction cinema has made use of the cyborg metaphor to yield depictions of female cyborgs that reflect the themes of emancipation and individuality.